Couple
drops out of the sky into Cubero
By Tom Purdom and
Craig Robinson
Independent Staff Members
CUBERO — What happened June 20 could have
been a disaster, instead, it turned into new friendships.
Doedo and Gail Schipper, were flying home to Longmont, Colo., from
Santa Paula, Calif., in their twin-seat, 1963 biplane when engine problems
developed 10,000
feet above Cubero. They flew to the ground and right into the lives of Alex
and Lorraine Gonzales.
Originally from the Netherlands, Doedo (pronounced dew-do) and Gail
are the pilot husband and wife team. Gail, 41, is a computer software
developer and
Doedo is
an emergency room nurse, as well as a glider and power flight instructor.
The couple own a Bucker Jungmann, a biplane designed in Germany in 1934 to
be a German military trainer aircraft. Made of wood and fabric wings, and
powered by a four-cylinder engine spinning a wooden propeller, Germany sold
the design
to several European countries as well as Japan. Virtually thousands of the
little
airplanes were built in the 1930s and 1940s. In fact Spain built and used
the biplane as a trainer aircraft until the early 1970s. The Schipper's aircraft
is a former Spanish model built in 1963, and was still in good flying condition
when they bought it in June 2000.
In addition to her husband being a flight instructor, Gail is a licensed
pilot and is active in a Colorado women's pilot organization.
The Schipper's bought the plane on the east coast and have flown it to Colorado,
Montana, California and Iowa.
In fact, they flew to Santa Paula earlier this month where a yearly Bucker
association meeting is held. On June 19, they left the Golden State and flew
over Arizona
and eventually crossed the border only to land in Gallup. "We spent the
night in Gallup," Gail said.
Early June 20, the Schipper's got into their aircraft, fired up the engine,
waited for it to warm up, did a flight check and took off out of Gallup heading
for
Albuquerque then to Longmont.
It was no accident the Schippers flew at 10,000 feet. "We like to fly at
10,000 feet," Gail said.
Between Grants and Cubero the engine began to sputter and lose power. To
the Schippers it was obvious that there was a problem with one of the cylinders.
Running on three cylinders, the decision was made to find a landing spot
quick
because the plane was losing about 500 feet per minute of elevation. With
Doedo in the rear seat flying the plane, Gail searched for a spot to land
the aircraft
on her maps. She spotted the little abandoned airfield that thousands of
motorists passing by Cubero overlook, but it is there.
As an emergency room nurse, Doedo has made many real-time decisions. It was
decision time flying above the desert floor for the Schippers.
"When the engine stops, you are ready for a real-time decision," he
said.
Flying over the field once to get the lay of things there, Doedo turned the
craft back and nosed her down toward earth.
On the ground, the Gonzales family was taking an easy Sunday afternoon at
home.
Someone told Alex that an airplane just landed at the airport and someone
was waving their hands.
Alex got in his pickup truck and drove to the plane. Meanwhile, Gail went
to a nearby home to borrow some tools, but unknown to the Schipper's the
plane
was beyond a simple pit-stop repair job.
Alex had a good feeling about the couple from Colorado. They needed to find
out about their plane, but they also needed to find a place to stay. Alex
loaned them his Dodge pickup truck to check into Sky City Casino Motel.
Alex contacted friends in Colorado who had a trailer, which would be used
to haul the biplane back to Colorado, but that would take time.
Gail had to fly back to Longmont, so the Gonzales' loaned Doedo their air
conditioned van for the trip to the airport in Albuquerque.
Then, when Doedo's two friends arrived to help haul the plane back, the Gonzales'
opened their home. "We had a whole house full of kids who were at home over
the weekend, but they were gone, so we invited them (Doedo and his two Colorado
friends) to stay at our place," Lorraine said. "We had the extra room."
"They were nice people," Alex said.
What the Gonzales family did for complete strangers who dropped out of the
sky, and what others did for them, has Gail talking about New Mexicans. "The
people were extremely nice to us," Gail said. "They didn't have to
do what they did, but they just went ahead and did it."
The two Colorado friends and Doedo took the biplane apart, loaded it on the
trailer, said their good-byes to the Gonzales family and drove back to Colorado. |
Friday
July 2, 2004
Selected
Stories:
Liquor
laws broken every day at city golf course
Bluewater Lake has dead woman walking
Couple drops out of the sky into Cubero
A little bit of thistle and a little
bit of that
Fort
Defiance man wins 'Buy Navajo' challenge
Deaths |
